Unity College is a

private college Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grants. D ...

based in

New Gloucester, Maine New Gloucester is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, in the United States. It is home to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, the last active Shaker village in the U.S. The town's population was 5,676 at the 2020 census. New Gloucester is part ...

with an additional campus in

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

and facilities in Moose River and Thorndike. It offers undergraduate and graduate education based on sustainability science that emphasizes study of the environment and natural resources. Initially founded as a residential school in Unity, Maine, Unity College expanded into online education in 2016 which grew both its enrollment and number of academic programs. The college moved its online program to the historic

Pineland Farms Pineland Farms is a 5,000-acre farm and recreational property in the eastern part of New Gloucester, Maine. It is partly on the site of the former Pineland Hospital and Training Center. History In the early part of the 20th century, the State of ...

campus in New Gloucester in 2019 and later relocated their administrative headquarters there. Unity College operates both an online-only program and a hybrid program with on-campus courses at both the New Gloucester and Unity campuses.

History

The college was founded in 1965 as the Unity Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a faculty of 15 and a student body of 39. The founders, a group of local business people, were looking for ways to counter economic decline in the town of Unity. Two years later, it changed its name to Unity College and in 1969 awarded degrees to its first graduating class of 24. The college's founders had previously considered opening a bowling alley and a sock factory before settling on the college, which didn't adopt an environmental-oriented focus until 1977. It built the first

Passivhaus "Passive house" (german: Passivhaus) is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building's ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or coo ...

college residence in the U.S. in 2011 and became the first college in the country to divest its endowment of fossil fuels in 2012. Unity underwent a tumultuous period in the 1980s, when it was placed on probation by its accreditor. President Wilson Hess, a professor who was selected to lead the college in the middle of the crisis, led fundraising efforts to put Unity on a firm financial footing. The college received an unprecedented $10 million gift in 2011 and its endowment has since grown to $18 million. Unity began offering online education in 2016 with its first

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, in Professional Science. It began offering undergraduate online programs two years later. In 2020, Unity College closed its Unity campus due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

. During the prolonged pandemic-related closure, the college announced it would pivot away from a traditional residential model and would consider selling its campus. In 2021, Unity College President Melik Peter Khoury told the ''

Morning Sentinel The ''Morning Sentinel'' is an American daily newspaper published six mornings a week in Waterville, Maine. It is owned by MaineToday Media. The newspaper covers cities and towns in parts of Franklin, Kennebec, Penobscot and Somerset counties ...

'' that the campus was "never listed for sale" and that it would reopen for the fall term. Unity College moved its online program offices from Unity to New Gloucester in 2019. In 2021, when the fate of the Unity, Maine campus was still uncertain, the college announced a new online and commuter

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

which would also be located in New Gloucester called the Technical Institute for Environmental Professions. The college also moved its headquarters to New Gloucester, though it continues to operate the Unity, Maine campus as its sole residential campus. Residential students complete their general education courses online under the college's hybrid model. Past presidents include

Mitchell Thomashow Mitchell S. Thomashow is a writer, educator, and environmentalist focused on innovations in sustainability and environmental learning. Thomashow is the author of essays in environmental and education anthologies, including as co-founder of '' Who ...

, Wilson Hess, and Stephen Mulkey.

Athletics

Unity College had an athletics program and was a member of the Division II level of the

United States Collegiate Athletic Association The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) is a national organization for the intercollegiate athletic programs of 72 mostly small colleges, including community/junior colleges, across the United States. The USCAA holds 15 nationa ...

(USCAA), primarily competing in the

Yankee Small College Conference Yankee Small College Conference is a Division II conference in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). The conference consists of two-year and four-year schools from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State. The confere ...

(YSCC) from 2008–09 until 2018–19. Known as the Rams, the athletics program featured both USCAA-sanctioned sports and club sports, including a

Woodsman Woodsman (also, woodsmen, pl.) is a competitive, co-ed intercollegiate sport in the United States, Canada and elsewhere based on various skills traditionally part of forestry educational and technical training programs. In North America, the sp ...

team. Previously, Unity competed in up to nine intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports included basketball, cross country, soccer and track & field; while women's sports included basketball, cross country, soccer, track & field and volleyball. Additionally Unity College had a number of club sports: woodsmen's team, ice hockey, indoor soccer, lacrosse, martial arts and ultimate frisbee; plus

intramural sports Intramural sports are recreational sports organized within a particular institution, usually an educational institution, or a set geographic region. The term, which is chiefly North American, derives from the Latin words ''intra muros'' meaning " ...

Accomplishments

The Unity College men's and women's cross-country teams both won the 1996

National Small College Athletic Association The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) is a national organization for the intercollegiate athletic programs of 72 mostly small colleges, including community/junior colleges, across the United States. The USCAA holds 15 nationa ...

(NSCAA) National Championship meet held at

Michigan Christian College Rochester University (formerly Rochester College) is a private Christian college in Rochester Hills, Michigan. It was founded by members of the Churches of Christ in 1959. Rochester University is primarily undergraduate (though it offers so ...

Rochester Hills, Michigan Rochester Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 76,300. It is the 14th-largest city in Michigan. The area was first occupied by settlers of European descent in 1 ...

. These were Unity College's first-ever men's and women's national championship teams. The NSCAA was the predecessor of today's

(USCAA). In 1992 the Unity College women's cross country team won the NAIA Division 5 New England Championship meet held at Johnson State College, Vermont.

Student life

Unity College's Unity campus is home to dozens of extra-curricular clubs and activities for students. ''Unity Commons'' was the student-run newspaper, consisting of locally focused journalism and student submissions of art, photography, poetry, and short fiction. It has not published since 2020.

References

External links

Official website

Official athletics website
{{coord, 44, 36, 14.05, N, 69, 19, 50.90, W, display=inline,title Educational institutions established in 1965 Universities and colleges in Waldo County, Maine USCAA member institutions 1965 establishments in Maine Private universities and colleges in Maine